From Birth to Bone

and why I write

Hi There,

Welcome to Spirit: Notes for the Creative Contemplative, where I discuss the role of literature, creativity, and mindfulness in culture through personal essays. I’m the author of What Will Outlast Me? (forthcoming 2023 from Unsolicited Press), and I’m the founder of Writers’ Studio, a literary arts education program in Corpus Christi, Texas.

I’m so glad you’re reading, and if you landed here from the wilds of the internet, please subscribe so you don’t miss out on future articles.

Thanks for reading,

Sarah

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I turned in the final copyedits of my debut book, What Will Outlast Me? on Monday. I’ve barely been able to write a word since.

At this milestone, I am drained. Dessicated. Emotionally, the last pass of editing on this memoir was surprisingly hard. This is going public. After this, there are no take-backs. (Notice that hyphen. Last week I double checked all 623 hyphens in my manuscript!)

Photo by Matt Artz on Unsplash

These stories I’ve written, recounting moments of my life that were painful or vulnerable, or when I behaved badly, are going out into the world. I’m sending them because I think there are people out there who will connect with the narrative. People that I hope will feel less alone because of what I’ve written. I’ve experienced this when reading my favorite authors. A book that does that is a balm. That’s the whole reason I knew at 12 that I wanted to be a writer.

So I do not have anything new for you today. Instead, I want to share the link to the last essay I wrote in November about the one-year point into the pandemic. It’s the most recently drafted essay from What Will Outlast Me?, which is slated for publication by Unsolicited Press in June 2023. This excerpt, “From Birth to Bone,” was published last month in Triquarterly.

I hope you enjoy it.

Read “From Birth to Bone” here.

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